Newsflash:

We’re open every day except Good Friday, 29 March. View our Easter opening hours here ›

Sydney Harbour's natural beauty has always enticed residents to settle on its foreshores.

As Sydney city became more densely populated in the 1830s, settlers moved further out to the eastern harbour suburbs of Rushcutters Bay, Darling Point and Double Bay. At that time the land was heavily timbered, but after New South Head Road was built in 1831, the area was cleared and subdivided, opening it for settlement. Most of the land in Darling Point was taken up by private individuals between 1833 and 1838.

Sir Ralph Darling / engraved by J. Richardson Jackson, painted by J. Linnell
View collection item detail

Darling Point quickly became a desirable residence for some of the most successful members of Sydney's emerging society, including Surveyor-General Sir Thomas Mitchell, businessmen Thomas Sutcliffe Mort, Thomas Ware Smart, Thomas Whistler Smith and retailer Anthony Hordern. The area became a showplace and social centre for Sydney's wealthy and influential, and continues to be so today.

Looking East - Darling Point & beyond looks at the lifestyles, attitudes and activities of the people who settled in Darling Point, their families, their houses and the community that sprung up on this rugged promontory in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

Early views of Darling Point

Carthona and Lindesay, Darling Point, from Clark Island
ca. 1844
Henry Curzon Allport
Digital ID: 
a1528148
View collection item detail
Views in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania, 1853 / John W. Hardwick
ca.1853
John William Hardwick
Digital ID: 
a1210006
View collection item detail
St. Mark's Church etc. Darling Point [a view], 1857 / Samuel Thomas Gill
1857
Samuel Thomas Gill
Digital ID: 
a1528142
View collection item detail
a928381h.jpg
Port Jackson from Darling Point [showing Carthona], 1842 / John Rae
1842
John Rae
Digital ID: 
a928381
View collection item detail
Darling Point, 1886 / painted by Gother Victor Fyers Mann
1886
Gother Victor Fyers Mann
Digital ID: 
a1528063
View collection item detail
[Rushcutter's Bay, Sydney]
Digital ID: 
a089851
View collection item detail

Made possible through a partnership with Belinda Hutchinson AM & Roger Massy-Greene